Sec. 1-1. Words and phrases. (a) In the construction of the statutes, words and phrases shall be construed according to the commonly approved usage of the language; and technical words and phrases, and such as have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in the law, shall be construed and understood accordingly.

      (b) The phrase "railroad company" shall be construed to mean and include all corporations, trustees, receivers or other persons, that lay out, construct, maintain or operate a railroad, unless such meaning would be repugnant to the context or to the manifest intention of the General Assembly.

      (c) The term "banks" shall include all incorporated banks.

      (d) The term "savings banks" shall include savings banks, societies for savings and savings societies.

      (e) The term "public buildings" shall include a statehouse, courthouse, townhouse, arsenal, magazine, prison, community correctional center, almshouse, market or other building belonging to the state, or to any town, city or borough in the state, and any church, chapel, meetinghouse or other building generally used for religious worship, and any college, academy, schoolhouse or other building generally used for literary instruction.

      (f) Words importing the singular number may extend and be applied to several persons or things, and words importing the plural number may include the singular.

      (g) Words importing the masculine gender may be applied to females and words importing the feminine gender may be applied to males.

      (h) Words purporting to give a joint authority to several persons shall be construed as giving authority to a majority of them.

      (i) The word "month" shall mean a calendar month, and the word "year" a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed.

      (j) The word "oath" shall include affirmations in cases where by law an affirmation may be used for an oath, and, in like cases, the word "swear" shall include the word "affirm".

      (k) The words "person" and "another" may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations.

      (l) The words "preceding", "following" and "succeeding", when used by way of reference to any section or sections, shall mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference.

      (m) Except as provided in section 7-452, the words "legislative body", as applied to unconsolidated towns, shall mean the town meeting; as applied to cities and consolidated towns and cities, shall mean the board of aldermen, council or other body charged with the duty of making annual appropriations; as applied to boroughs and consolidated towns and boroughs, shall mean the board of burgesses; as applied to all other districts and associations, shall mean the district committee or association committee or other body charged with the duty of making annual appropriations.

      (n) "Ordinance" shall mean an enactment under the provisions of section 7-157.

      (o) "Voters" shall mean those persons qualified to vote under the provisions of section 7-6.

      (p) Repealed by P.A. 76-186.

      (q) Except as otherwise specifically defined, the words "agriculture" and "farming" shall include cultivation of the soil, dairying, forestry, raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, including horses, bees, poultry, fur-bearing animals and wildlife, and the raising or harvesting of oysters, clams, mussels, other molluscan shellfish or fish; the operation, management, conservation, improvement or maintenance of a farm and its buildings, tools and equipment, or salvaging timber or cleared land of brush or other debris left by a storm, as an incident to such farming operations; the production or harvesting of maple syrup or maple sugar, or any agricultural commodity, including lumber, as an incident to ordinary farming operations or the harvesting of mushrooms, the hatching of poultry, or the construction, operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways used exclusively for farming purposes; handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing or delivering to storage or to market, or to a carrier for transportation to market, or for direct sale any agricultural or horticultural commodity as an incident to ordinary farming operations, or, in the case of fruits and vegetables, as an incident to the preparation of such fruits or vegetables for market or for direct sale. The term "farm" includes farm buildings, and accessory buildings thereto, nurseries, orchards, ranges, greenhouses, hoophouses and other temporary structures or other structures used primarily for the raising and, as an incident to ordinary farming operations, the sale of agricultural or horticultural commodities. The term "aquaculture" means the farming of the waters of the state and tidal wetlands and the production of protein food, including fish, oysters, clams, mussels and other molluscan shellfish, on leased, franchised and public underwater farm lands. Nothing herein shall restrict the power of a local zoning authority under chapter 124.